Champions Online

[Dr Archeville]

Champions Online gains profits and players as a free-to-play

While the companies have not released any specific subscriber or traffic numbers, they have noted that unique logins, concurrent users, and revenue totals have increased by "over 1,000 percent" since Champions Online went free-to-play.

:shock:

[Aoiroo]

That's not surprising, the fact that the entire game's content is free means that it attracts a much larger crowd of players, and the more people playing the game the more likely they are to buy extras which in turn more than makes up for the revenue lost from the subscriptions. That's how Nexon makes it's money.

[Dr Archeville]

The entire game's content isn't free.

[Raveled]

Champions Online gains profits and players as a free-to-play

:shock:

That's not uncommon. When Dungeons & Dragons Online went free-to-play, it's revenue stream increased by 300%. It's a stupidly profitable set-up, to the point where some industry analysts are predicting the end of subscription-based MMOs.

[Geez3r]

Yeah, for me personally, I don't have enough time to play the game (or any game) for $15 a month to be worth while. Extra character slots and extra bag slots are something I'd consider buying however.

[Dr Archeville]

I would be interested in knowing how much of their increased revenue is from new Gold (i.e., paying) subscribers, and how much is from the Silver (i.e., free) members doing microtransactions for things like costume bits, the 'premium' Archetypes, travel powers, henchmen/sidekicks, adventure packs, and so on.

[April]

Yeah, DDO and LotRO both shot way up revenue wise after going F2P

[Geez3r]

Just played about 20 minutes of Vibora Bay Apocalypse. If the rest of the game was like this, I'd seriously consider subscribing. This is the firs time in the game where I felt like #$%@ was seriously about to hit the fan unless I did something.

Also, those annoying gates they've got around that pour undead out of them? Run away unless there's a lot of high level people around. The boss that spawns will kick your butt.

[Dr Archeville]

I've heard the Vibora Bay section is by far the best part of the game. By contrast, the Lemuria sections are supposedly the worst.

[Geez3r]

Lemuria is god awful. Cool in concept, terrible in application. What ruins it is the swimming, you know, the thing you've never practiced at all in the past 30 levels and therefore have no idea how to do it properly in combat. If you have a melee power set, this area is gonna suck. Hard.

[Geez3r]

Just hit level 40 with Atlas today. I actually still have most of the quests of Vibora Bay to do. And I know I've got a few chains to finish up on Monster Island and Lemuria as well.

[Geez3r]

Because I'm a terrible person, I've got a second account. Right now with a level 20 Inferno character. Scorch@Geez3r37

[Dr Archeville]

As an anniversary present, my wife bought me the Inventor Archetype. So now I've made Dok!

[Raveled]

Lots of folks seem to be having fun with this game, so I'm jumping back into it. Look for @Raveled. I have a lot of toons, but my main is an Electricity blaster-type.

[Geez3r]

I put up a bit of a directory at the front page. I probably missed some of you.

[Ecalsneerg]

As an anniversary present, my wife bought me the Inventor Archetype. So now I've made Dok!

Your wife is awesome.

[Dr Archeville]

There's a new adventure pack coming out soon, so this week, the two existing adventure packs (Serpent Lantern and Demonflame) are 80% off.

/me wishes he'd know about this before buying them, two weeks ago, at full price.

[Geez3r]

Updated the character stuff at the beginning for my own accounts. I still play the game pretty regularly, but I'm not sure about the rest of you. I find my attention to a character stalls once they reach around level 33 and I have to go to Lemuria to continue leveling (without farming tens of thousands of enemies that is). As such, Atlas is still the only character I've maxed at this point. As a side note, the Mind Archetype I'm currently playing is a pain to level in a solo fashion.

[Geez3r]

They've just added Hideouts I do believe the "Mom's Basement" is the most common type we see here at FC :P

[April]

So, I keep meaning to give this game a go but I don't know WTF. Someone teach me to Champions?

[Geez3r]

Here's a good guide on the Wiki, which I also recommend looking through.

If you want my advice keep reading.

Alright, if you're a F2P member (aka Silver), you've got to play one of the Archetypes. Some are free for Silver, and others are a one time purchase. Like other MMO's, you've got your different party roles. Tank, Support, DPS and General. In CO, the most forgiving IMO is the Tank role for solo play. That being said, getting even one person to play in a group helps tremendously, regardless of the role combinations.

The first and most basic note, is that immediately after the tutorial, you'll be in the Reniassance Center of Millenium City. This has absolutely everything you need, and functions very much like a Hub for the rest of the game. Learn the area. There are several quests that help you do just that. The main feature here however is a building/teleporter thing that looks like a rotating gear in the center of the Ren Center. This is the Power House. This is where you go to buy your powers and the like after a level up. Every major area has a Power House. Until you get used to the game and know the pacing, I suggest coming here after every level up. The fact that you get tons of stuff early on in the game also helps matters. You can also try your powers out here to see if you like them before you buy them. You can also remove powers at a later date, though do note that it can cost quite a bit of in game money to undo many choices.

Getting back to the Archetypes, you'll notice most of your Powers are chosen for you. This doesn't mean you don't have customization however. You gain Talents which bump your stats every 5 or so levels, but the main customization comes from your Advantage Points. They make your powers better. Go to the wiki for further details. In general however, I recommend the first power you use advantage points on is your "Slotted Passive" It'll be the power your unlock at level 8. If you're a tank, it'll greatly reduce the damage you take. if you're a DPS, it'll greatly increase your damage, so on and so forth. It gives you the most bang for your buck that early on in your career. The one exception is Defiant if you're a Behemoth. I don't really see the need of getting it to rank 3, as stacks of Defiant can be built fast and last a while.

Besides the passive, every character needs the following:

1. An energy builder. You start with this power, it gives you energy to power every other power you have. Don't spend advantage points here, it's good enough as is.

2. A mook sweeper. A decent AoE with solid damage to take out a room full of henchmen is a must.

3. A single-target damage effect. You will fight bosses, you will need to defeat them. This can be excused if your Mook sweeper power is very powerful, or you haven't unlocked the high damage one yet.

4. A shtick power. Something specific to your role. Something that adds to your damage if DPS, something that adds threat if a tank, healing if a support role, etc.

5. The Oh Crap button. Sometimes you screw up and accidentally aggro like 3 or 4 groups of enemies, or you forget to block the boss' big hit, and you need to get out of combat now. This depends on your role and your Archetype. For instance, many DPS archetypes have an active offense power which dramatically increase your damage for a very short time. Use that time to kill everything in the room before it kills you. Other archtypes have smoke grenades, or a power that makes you nearly impossible to damage for a short time.

If you cover all those bases, you've made a good character.

Now, as for Travel powers you get your pick of the following (for free, you can purchase others). You can increase your TP to rank 2 at level 20 and rank 3 at level 40 using Advantage Points. I highly recommend you do so. You unlock a second TP at level 35, but you can't use them both at the same time.

Flight

Super-Speed

Super-Jump

Acrobatics

Teleportation

Flight is bog standard, and is very well rounded. You've got a slower acceleration, and your top speed isn't all that high, but you travel safely from one part of the map by setting your direction and walking away to get a drink or something.

Super-Speed is the fastest out of all of these powers in a straight line. The main drawback of this power however is that you have to go around obstacles instead of over them. It also makes enemies less likely to notice you, allowing you to run really close by them.

Super-Jump is IMO, the best power for overworld travel. Not quite as fast as Super-Speed, but faster than Flight, and you can get over obstacles really easy. However, bunny hopping through dungeons can be annoying.

Acrobatics is a mash up of Super-Speed and Super-Jump, but to a lesser degree than their counter parts. You can't jump up onto buildings (until rank 2), but you can jump over hills due to a glitch where you effectively surf over the incline of the hill. I think it's the slowest from point to point, but there's rarely a situation it's bad in.

Teleportation is a source of constant complaints on the forums. If you're into PvP, you've got Teleport. It got hit with the nerf hammer recently so I don't know if that'll continue. It's basically the opposite of Super-Jump, great for tactical movement, but terrible at overworld travel.

As for a leveling guide, never accept a quest that is a higher level than your own. There are 2 exceptions to this. The "collect 20 of X off of this type of enemy" quests and the "defeat 150 of X" quests. They are meant to be quests you do while doing the rest of the quest chains in the area. So you get extra XP for doing what you would have done anyway. If you ever run out of places to go, pull up your quest journal (J by default) and click on your Crime Computer and Search for Emergencies. It'll tell you where there are quest givers and the levels of quests they give. Keep and eye on the minimap too because some of them don't appear on the Crime Computer.

Leveling wise, once you finish with the Tutorial, and the basic "find your way around the Ren Center" quests, go to the Crisis in Canada from the helicopter, which is right by the Super Jet. Pop back between Canada and Millennium City until you're like level 17-ish, at which point you'll open up the Desert Crisis, which you can go to using the same helicopter. After that you'll find yourself jumping between those three repeatedly up until you reach level 30 or so, where Monster Island opens up, and it is awesome. The around level 35 or so, you get Lemuria, which is terrible. Once you ditch Lemuria to do a quest chain in Millennium City, you open up Vibora Bay, which is easily the best part of the game.

If you're willing to shell out a bit of money, you can also unlock Adventure Packs, which are basically really in depth side quests that can be done at any level. I don't know anything about them however.

[Geez3r]

Also, if we can get a few people online at once (I think we need 5) we can start our own Supergroup. It allows us to get an additional Costume Slot (the only way for Silvers to get one without paying real world money) and we get access to a Supergroup Bank. Essentially just another bank we can use, albeit communal. But it could just as easily be used as a personal bank slot for our members. And trust me, you will need bank space.

[Aoiroo]

I'm up for that, Siren is excellant for group works.

[Raveled]

I'm up for that. Let me know when folks are on, and I'll throw my dozen or so (alts are a hell of a drug) heroes into the group.

[Cyroa]

I'd join in (playing with other is the point; doing solo sucks/is boring)...but would likely want to make a new char. The one I have is far from smartly built. *shrug*

So...starting over from lvl 1 but least I oculd make something the group needs.